January is National Mentor Month

In honor of National Mentor Month, I’d like to introduce Instepper, an innovative and fun mentoring program that use teenage players to mentor younger players to develop and reinforce the most important fundamental skill in soccer—the first-touch (FT) using the inside-of-the-foot (IOTF).

Why Mentoring?

It works! Mentoring has been around since antiquity as is evidenced by the character Mentor in the ancient Greek epic, The Odyssey. Today, mentoring programs can be found in companies and academia throughout the world. The benefits that both the mentee and mentor derive from such a partnership are well documented. Instepper brings these mentoring benefits to soccer.

Why Teenage Players?

• Many teenage soccer players have accumulated 1,000-4,000+ hours of soccer experience (practice, games, and unstructured play) in their careers. They possess more than enough knowledge and expertise to become excellent Instepper mentors.
• Mentoring will give teenage players unique and ample opportunities to develop important soft skills that they can take with them to college, the workforce, and use throughout life.
• Younger mentees will from a strong bond/friendship with their mentors. This will make it easier for mentors to mentor, reinforce, and motivate younger players to improve their FT with the IOTF.

Why the First-Touch?

Every single play in soccer begins with a player receiving and controlling the ball. EVERY. SINGLE. PLAY. Players MUST have a confident FT in order to reach their full playing potential. This can only be achieved using the proper technique and lots of hard work.

Why the Inside-of-the-Foot?

This one is simple; it’s what professionals use.

• Two-third of all first-touches are with the IOTF.
• Three-quarters of all passes are with the IOTF.
• Two-third of all goals scored with the feet are scored with the IOTF

Why Instepper?

The Instepper mission is to:

1. Help young players reach their full playing potential by developing a sound and confident FT with the IOTF.
2. Develop tomorrow’s leaders by giving mentors the opportunity to capitalize on their ‘expertise’ to grow and thrive both on and off the field.

The Instepper curriculum and program is innovative, flexible, stress-free, easy to implement, and most importantly–FUN! Visit www.instepper.com to learn more about Instepper and the many benefits it affords mentees, mentors, parents, coaches, teams, schools, and clubs.

Get in step with Instepper today!